_john

I've tried a few umeshu brands but I don't really remember which I liked best. I've tried brandy umeshu and sake umeshu too, they were both good. But there is only one umeshu for me ... my umeshu! It's about 6 months old and tastes amazing, I used extra ume because I love to eat the actual ume and use them in recipes. I usually don't drink it though, I save it for guests. I have a question for people who have made umeshu before: my ume became soft, but the ume at the bottom of the choya bottle are usually firm, why would this have happened?

I didn't know there were two types! your supermarket has quite a few varieties hiroyuki. Do they always have to many or is because of the "sweet potato fair" they are having? I must be buying the beni azuma type. I was inspired by this thread and bought some sweet potatoes today on my way home. I also bought two giant cabbages, 100yen for 2!

Do any of the hotels do a Thanksgiving buffet or set menu? I'm thinking of looking elsewhere for my Thanksgiving fix rather than trying to recreate it myself.

I recently bought some natto-kin(natto bacillus) and kouji-kin("sake yeast") at tokyu hands. Let the fermentation begin! Does anyone know there to get dried fruit at the best price? specifically blueberries and apricots? Which supermarkets carry frozen fruit such as strawberries? I had a really hard time finding frozen strawberries the other day and resorted to buying a small carton of strawberries at daimaru for about 1000yen (admittedly they were some of the best strawberries I've had) also, I'm moving to a new, unfurnished, apartment and I need to buy a refrigerator. A recycle shop is selling one of those glass drink refrigerators that has a horizontal orientation which would be great because I could use the top as counter space but I'm worried about it using a lot of electricity. Any suggestions on kitchen appliances?

I love Japanese sweet potatoes. I buy the slender long ones. To cook them I usually wash them and while they are still wet I sprinkle them generously with salt and rub them together to scratch up the skin. Then I toss them in the toaster oven for about 15 minutes. They are great this way, salty, crispy skin and sweet starchy flesh. Good Japanese sweet potatoes taste like chestnuts. I eat them about once a week because they are so inexpensive. 150yen for a bag of five good sized sweet potatoes!

there was a candy in the 90s called "Power Hose" that looked like a slim, pink, can of shaving cream with a clear hose extending from the nozzle. You would put the hose in your mouth and slowly squirt an expanding pink foam into your mouth. The flavor was a pretty generic citric acid taste but it was really good and so much fun. It was such a strange idea but somehow I loved it.

Berkeley Bowl or bust

I love hanpen and gyusuji. oxtails are an excellent addition. I usually make one pot of only daikon and then another pot of other items. I save my oden boiling liquid and reuse it, it tastes amazing after three or four batches. unfortunately I have never eaten oden at a yatai (street vendor) because I have never seen one where I live. Has anyone seen the new children's fad Oden-kun? I think it is written by someone named Lily Franky. Is that a company name or a person's name?

it tastes kind of like rotten bananas at first. then you get used to the mild vinegar and banana flavor. After reading the ingredients it's obvious that it is not vinegar that is created from some sort of banana liquor but rather neutral vinegar (distilled) with banana puree added. That'll teach me to read ingredients lists. Subuta is a good idea btw. I think it will match nicely. Letting strawberries sit in some banana vinegar and then eating them with ice cream or whipped cream sounds good too.

Sudachi match perfectly with matsutake mushrooms. My favorite way to enjoy sudachi and matsutake is dobin mushi, a steamed soup with matsutake, seafood (usually hamo and shrimp in kansai), and mitsuba. The soup is poured out of the small teapot that it is steamed in into a small cup and then you squeeze a little sudachi juice into the cup and drink it. I also enjoy sudachi chuhai and homemade ponzu.

I bought some banana vinegar the other day that was on sale. Japan seems to be having a vinegar boom at the moment with lots of vinegar products appearing recently. I bought it just to see what it tasted like and now I have a whole mini carton of it. Any ideas for using banana vinegar?

I attempted to make curry roux from scratch today. I actually created something really close to "curry shop curry" on my first try. Here is my method: 1 onion 1 carrot 6 cloves garlic 1 thumb sized piece of ginger 300 ml stock (I used beef) 2 tbs tomato paste 5 tablespoons curry powder (I used homemade) 1/3 c flour 1/3 c lard additional meat and vegetables for the "actual" curry. In a blender blend the onion, carrot, garlic, ginger, tomato paste, and stock into a fine puree. heat a tablespoon of lard in a high sided pot to the smoking point and then pour the puree in. Stir continuously. The liquid will evaporate and a sort of paste will form at the bottom and start to become dry after 30-40 minutes. after a certain point the paste will begin to stick to the bottom and caramelize. use small amounts of water to deglaze the pan and incorporate the caramelized bits into the paste. Repeat this for 20 minutes or until the paste has darkened and it has the flavor of caramelized onions but does not smell or taste burnt. at this point add the curry powder and mix until incorporated. deglaze a final time and set the paste aside. Now make the roux: melt the lard in a pan and add the flour. cook on a medium low flame until the roux reaches the "blonde" or "dirty blonde" stage. Once the roux reaches that stage add the paste back into the pan and combine the roux and paste. cook the mixture for 5 minutes and set aside. This is now your "boxed curry roux" substitute. I then boiled beef in a large volume of water (in this case I used beef tendon which added great body to the finished curry). After the water came to a boil I added my prepared curry paste and simmered the whole thing for about an hour and a half. The liquid thickened and reduced in volume by about half. The meat juices and gelatin added the necessary sweetness and body. At the very end I added salt to taste. Hopefully I will have some time to experiment with this more in the future. Any input would be appreciated.

mmm, me too. there is a really good kalbi onigiri for sale at 7-11 here that uses korean style nori. I have used korean syle nori to make onigiri before and I did't have any problems. first time to try umeboshi paste?! you should order umemaki next time you are at a sushi restaurant. I love umeboshi onigiri

I was just given a gift of beautiful mizunasu. does anyone know what the best way to enjoy mizunasu is? I have had them lightly pickled as an appetizer at sushi restaurants and was amazed at the flavor of raw eggplant. I had never had raw eggplant before that time and now I am a total convert. What is the technique for pickling them like that? How else can I enjoy these mizunasu (I have a big box of them)?

As far as I know there is a large grinder which is capable of grinding up veg, fruits, meat, bone, etc somewhere on the airport premises. The grinder empties into a biohazard bag that is then incinerated. Alcohol is poured down the drain and the bottles are recycled after being broken. It would be ridiculous to believe that no skimming occurs, so yes, someone somewhere is having an awesome party at your expense.

I don't know if they still have them but IKEA used to sell these ceramic spice grinders that look like medicine capsules. They were either orange or beige on top and black on the bottom. They are great because they are really easy to grip and they have an adjustable grind. I imported mine to Japan, I like them that much.

Today I ate at menbaka ichidai. WOW it was really good. I made the trip to kyoto just to eat this ramen. If you don't know about menbaka ichidai let me tell a little about it. The main attraction is the fire negi ramen. Shoyu ramen is topped with negi and garlic paste and then oil that has been heated until it catches on fire is poured on top. People with long hair must put their hair back with a supplied sanitary hair band, everyone must wear paper smocks and follow the master's instructions at all time. The taste was also a high point. The negi and garlic aroma was really special. I can't recommend their gyoza, chashu, or yakimeshi though. If you are in kyoto and wan't a cool dining experience check it out.

I'm trying to search the web for stainless steel chopsticks that are made in the Japanese style and are 18 - 20cm in length. I'm not sure what the best search string would be to find what I'm looking for but ステンレススチール箸 didn't really turn up anything useful. Has anyone seen stainless steel chopsticks like this? what would be the best way to search for these on the internet?

Did you watch it? I did! Sakai won with a score of 7 to 1. Sakai's demi-glass sauce looked delicious, and his choice ingredient was gorgeous - chou super jumbo mushroom! http://www.rakuten.co.jp/motoseika/604998/689707/609815/ 14 to 18 cm in diameter and 280 to 330 g in weight! Wow! ← I watched it. The chou super mushroom segment was amazing. "'is this the chou super jumbo mushroom?' , 'no THIS is the chou super jumbo mushroom'" Also the color of the losing chef's egg yolks was amazing. Such a dark orange. Hiroyuki did you catch the name of those eggs? I didn't.

I don't think it is binchotan. It is just large lumps of hardwood charcoal, it looks like mesquite. I start it using my stove and a device that looks like a chestnut roaster. It is sort of a super shichirin, which is where I got the idea for it in the first place. I was at the hardware store (コーナン)　and I was looking at the camping stoves that could be used for kushiyaki and the idea came to me. The camping stoves were the same size and shape as the terra cotta planter that I saw outside for 400yen . In my experience camping stoves and disposable bbqs are most common.

as you may know from another thread I use a flower pot that I converted to a kushi yaki and regular grill type bbq. It burns charcoal so it is fairly hot and cooks things very quickly, so I avoid the slow crowded overcooking that hiroyuki mentioned above. I set it on a table and people can choose which raw ingredients they want to grill. It is kind of like fire shabushabu, it takes less than a minute for yakiniku type meat to cook. at my last bbq I used by takoyaki pan with pancake batter, bananas, and chocolate to make dessertyaki.

I'm curious - do you have open (that is, not hermetically sealed) packets on your shelves? We live in an old (bug-prone) house, and despite fumigating once or twice a year, that's my biggest...er...bugbear. Rope storage - good idea. I don't have much cooking equipment that I don't use, apart from a few seasonal items, but my husband and I are both sentimental about old china - he brought his mother's china, and I brought my grandmother's china... ← my apartment is surprisingly bug free. A few times cockroaches have come up through the shower drain but now I keep it covered. I keep packages of flour, panko, etc. simply sealed with a laundry clip under my sink.

I like French style pastry and bread better in Japan than in France . Japanese bakeries are really great. I can't walk into one without buying something.

I had a great goya rafuti gyoza at an okinawa restaurant. simply amazing. I've also had normal gyoza that contained strawberries mixed in, also extremely good. I will be going to a couple famous gyoza places in Osaka in the next few weeks and I will fill you in on the fillings.

ive seen this before too, but in very small quantities. If I had some liquid smoke I could cure my own bacon and be a happy camper, but I haven't been able to find that either. I used to make my own bacon back in the states in my converted fridge smoker but somehow I think plumes of smoke coming from my small Japanese balcony would be cause for alarm in the neighborhood. all the bacon here seems to be ham. It is cooked, or pasturized, to a high temperature and it totally changes the texture and flavor. It all also seems to be perfectly rectangular and very thin. Does anyone know of a Japanese site on the internet selling spanish goods (paprika, jamon, olive oil, dry cured sausages) on the internet?